Fate of the Unknown: Kat's Tale
by LightandDarkHeart
Summary: *Nuzlocke White run, full summary inside* Kat's a new Pokemon trainer on her journey, juggling three dreams at the same time, when she gets drawn into an adventure she never bargained for. Dealing with Team Plasma, the mysterious N, and the Pokemon league at the same time? Oh, and did we mention the two giant dragon Pokemon? She's going to need all the luck she can get. Rated T
1. Prologue

**Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to my first ever Pokemon fanfiction, "Fate of the Unknown: Kat's Tale". This here is based on a Nuzlocke run I'm currently doing for Pokemon White, so I hope you like it!**

 **Summary: Newbie Pokemon trainer Kat has no idea what she's gotten herself into. It was bad enough that she decided to set out from her home in Nuvema Town to juggle not one, not two, but _three_ people's dreams, oh no. Now, she's caught in the middle of events she'd rather have nothing to do with. This crazy stuff about "Pokemon Liberation" is all fine and dandy, just as long as no one tries to shove it down her throat. If someone wants to take her Pokemon away from her, they're going to have to pry those Pokeballs from her cold, dead fingers. But a plea from one special Pokemon drags poor Kat into the middle of a conflict, and she can't help but have some questions. What is Team Plasma really after? Why does she keep encountering the strange and mysterious (not to mention completely bullheaded and stubborn) N? His quest for truth strikes Kat as a little odd, but she can't help but wonder whose "truth" he's really seeking. In order to get her answers, Kat will have to rely on a gift she loves and hates, friends both human and Pokemon, her own ideals, and her heart...Things are sooo much easier when you're just making spare cash drawing picture on the roadside...**

 **DISCLAIMER: I'm just getting this out of the way here and now, seeing as this is a long and drawn out disclaimer. I do not own Pokemon White, the Pokemon themselves, or any actual canon character. I just own Kat, a few other OCs, and the personalities I'm giving the Pokemon. Everything else is the property of Nintendo and Gamefreak. Read, review, and enjoy!**

* * *

 _Kat was confused._

 _She had no idea where in the world she was. She blinked. Once, twice, three times. Nope. She was still in the same, strange place._

 _So she was confused. And hating every second of it…_

 _There were ruins all over the place. Crumbling buildings that might have been breath-taking long ago, but were now decrepit and…well, ruined. Once towering columns now lay in pieces around her. Vines and ivy clustered thick and wild in some places, appearing to be the only thing holding some dubious structures together. Even the large marble platform she stood on must have seen better days. And with the thick mist hanging heavy in the air, it was a wonder how she could be seeing any of this at all._

 _All in all, things were a mess…_

" _Geez, Jay'd love to dig around in this place," she muttered._

 _Her archaeologist brother would probably sell his soul for a chance to study these ruins. If it was over a century old and falling to pieces, she could count of her brother to revert to a drooling mess. Personally, Kat wasn't all that interested in the past. She just wanted to know where she was. It didn't look like any place she knew of in Unova._

 _Was she in another region or something? How did_ that _happen?_

 _So deep in her contemplations of sudden and mysterious land mass travel, Kat almost didn't notice the sudden appearance of a crowd of people. She nearly shouted in surprise. One second, she was all alone. The next? There were a bunch of people everywhere._

 _Well, more like "kids" to be correct. The youngest looked about ten or something, but the majority of them seemed around her age. It was strange. They all looked like they came from so many different regions. Closest to her, she recognized some people wearing clothing typical of the Kalos regions. There also seemed to be people from the Sinoh region, the Johto, and even as far as the Kanto region. It boggled her mind. Kat had only read about those places—lands so far from Unova that you could only reach them by a boat or a plane—from her brother's books._

 _Even stranger still was the fact that the others all came in pairs; one girl to every boy. It was like some crazy gathering of representatives from all over the world. How odd…_

 _But that thought stuck in Kat's head. She looked around and sure enough, there was another Unovian standing not too far from her, a brown-haired and brown-eyed boy who must have been her age. She felt like laughing, it was so strange._

This is all so absurd _, she thought with a dry chuckle._ I must be dreaming…

 _The air suddenly shifted, so slight that Kat thought she must have imagined it. A bright, blinding flash of light forced her eyes shut. When she opened them next, recovered from the sudden attack of blindness, she gaped._

 _Standing before them all was a Pokémon. A tall, regal creature that looked slightly equine with a white and gold body. A massive wheel-like structure framed its back._

" _Beautiful…" Kat couldn't breathe. Her fingers itched for paper and pencil, begging for a chance to draw the majestic Pokémon._

 _It looked vaguely familiar, and the name felt as if it were on the tip of her tongue. Kat knew it had to be a Legendary—no other Pokémon could give off an aura of power like this._

 _As she and the other humans stared, the mysterious Pokémon's eyes slipped closed as it bowed its head. Smaller flashes of light appeared in front of the creature, forming the shapes of other species of Pokémon. Power radiated off of each other and Kat knew at once that they too were Legendary Pokémon. Other beautiful creatures that she yearned to commit their images to paper._

 _And the_ voices. _There were so many of them. Kat could hear them all, clear and bright as bells._

 _Two voices captured her attention at once. Her gaze was drawn to two Pokémon that stood side-by-side with each other, away from the others. Both appeared slightly draconic in nature and were a magnificent sight together. The one on the left was pure white, like fresh snow with glowing blue eyes. The other was its opposite, completely black with smoldering red eyes._

 _Kat couldn't take her eyes off of them. The two Pokémon's gazes held her entranced._

 _But just as suddenly as they appeared, all of the smaller Pokémon disappeared. They faded away, but not before Kat caught the flash of fear in each of their eyes. That same fear echoed in their voices, which caused dread and anguish to fill her stomach. She wanted to reach out to them, tell them that they would be alright. She wanted to help them._

 _Soon, it was just the first Legendary Pokémon left, gazing sadly down at the space where the others once stood. But even though the other Pokémon were gone, the space was_ far _from empty._

 _Humans now occupied that area—large groups of them. Seven, by her count. Who were they?_

 _Each group was distinguishable by the clothing they wore. Uniforms. The group standing in front of Kat looked…Well…_

 _She honestly thought that they looked ridiculous. Who even wore such silly, medieval armor and robes nowadays? It was laughable. She couldn't make out any of the people's faces, but two of them—both men, she figured, based on their body shape—stood front and center of the group._

They must be the leaders _, she realized._

 _She wished that she could see what they looked like. All she could make out from their blurry images was their hair. She'd never seen hair like theirs before, a light green color. Not the same shade as grass, but somewhere in between the colors of mint and green tea._

 _As she stared, Kat's head immediately started to hurt. Pain lashed her skull, like a wild Conkeldurr had started bashing her head. Images flashed before her eyes._

 _Fire. Pain. People and Pokémon alike, wailing in anguish and despair. Their voices penetrated her head in a deafening roar. The two dragon Pokémon, those beautiful white and black creatures, fought each other mercilessly._

No…This isn't right…Stop it, please…! Stop!

 _Who was responsible for this? Rage swelled up inside Kat. Who was responsible for all this pain, this fighting? Who_ dared _to create this suffering?!_

TAKE WHAT YOU SEE HERE, AND HOLD IT CLOSE TO YOUR HEART.

 _Kat looked up through tears she didn't even know were being shed. The strange groups of people were fading away, as was the pain that afflicted her, churning her insides like boiling oil. Rubbing her eyes furiously, she looked around to see some of the other children in states similar to her own. Had they all seen visions similar to her own, to cause such grief?_

" _Who's voice…?"_

REMEMBER THIS MOMENT.

 _Kat started. Her eyes shot up, fixed on the white and golden Pokémon. The creature stared back down at her and the others, eyes pleading._

STOP THEM. DON'T LET THEM SUCCEED IN THEIR PLANS.

 _Something wasn't right. Kat felt odd. Her whole body tingled, like tiny electrical pulses were coursing through her muscles. She looked down and cried out._

 _She was fading, disappearing. She tried to fight it, screaming and shouting as the voices of the other children joined in. They too were fading away and dissolving like mist. No one wanted to leave. They wanted to stay._

PLEASE…SAVE MY CHILDREN.

 _Just as the last of Kat's body faded, she threw her head back and screamed._

" _Wait, Arce—!"_

…

…

Kat jolted up in bed, pale purple eyes springing open wide in fright. A scream lodged in her throat and for a second, she thought that the sweaty strands of rusty red hair wrapped around her neck and face were hands, strangling her. She couldn't breathe.

"A-Ah…What…?"

She looked around. She was in her bedroom, safe and sound. The clock on her nightstand red five o'clock in the morning.

A nightmare, that's all it had been. Just a bad dream.

 _But…What did I just dream?_

She couldn't remember much of it. How strange. There had been pain, screaming, voices, and something else…Why did she feel that the color green was important? And somebody wanted something, but what…?

"I must be nervous about tomorrow," she rationalized. "Back to bed for me…"

Tomorrow was an important day, after all. She couldn't afford to be exhausted. So Kat lay back down, buried her face in the pillow, and pulled her comforter back over her head.

 _PLEASE…SAVE MY CHILDREN…_

 _SAVE…MY…CHILDREN…_

* * *

 **Right, so that's it for the prologue. I should also point out, this was done as part of a challenge put out by the member cmsully, which is being issued both here and on Deviantart (where both of us are members). If this idea interest's you, I suggest checking out her story to get the full details.**

 **So, since this is a Nuzlocke, there has to be rules, no?**

 **THE RULES (adopted and _slightly_ adapted from cmsully's):**

 **1\. If your Pokemon faints, it is dead. No revives! (However, in this case, I'm not going to limit that rule to the Legendary battles. My reasoning is thus. I have extremely bad luck with those battles, and will most likely have my whole team faint on those battles many, _many_ times. While this would create lots of drama, I don't think it would work all that well. But for everything else, if the poor thing faints, it shall be dead.)**

 **2\. You MUST try to catch the first Pokemon on every route, however, you can catch any other Pokemon you encounter. This way, you don't lessen the chances of catching any shiny or rare Pokemon.**

 **3\. Unless one of them is a Shiny, you may not have any multiples of a species.**

 **4\. ...Well, my game is Generation 5, so the Wonder Trade rule won't apply to this.**

 **5\. Once you defeat the Champion (in my case, it's Alder), all above rules are null and void. (cmsully's reasoning on this is that in her story, she's making Revives a rare, and therefor expensive item to own. So by defeating the Champion and assuming their position, you get the necessary income to pay for such an item. Now, I'm not sure if I'll be using this reasoning in my story, but that's a long way to go from now. But I'm still going with this rule because if I defeat him, dammit scream the rules, I have money!)**

 **Well, that's it for now. Let me know what you think in the review box below. Since I'm going off of the game, I want to be able to add extra stuff in to make the story line more entertaining. If you've got some ideas for stuff, let me know! And if you haven't read cmsully's story, "Fate of the Unknown: Bellamy's Tale", go check it out!**

 **BYE!**


	2. One Step at a Time

**Welcome, everyone to the official first chapter of Fate of the Unknown: Kat's Tale! Let's get on with the show!**

 **Disclaimer: See Prologue for the entire thing. You guys know the drill of what I do and don't own, anyway. Read, review, and most of all, enjoy!**

* * *

Chapter One: One Step at a Time

"RUSSELL, GIVE ME THOSE SCISSORS!"

Kat yelled at the top of her lungs as she ran wildly around her living room. A flurry of chaos and excitement followed in her wake as items flew all over with no rhyme or reason to the madness. The rug that was usually in the middle of the living room floor ended up wadded into a bundle and pushed halfway under the couch. A lamp had fallen to the ground and, thankfully, the bulb inside hadn't shattered. Kat had even tripped into the coffee table a few times. Somehow, the bloody thing kept moving and she working up to some blue ribbon bruises in the middle of her shins. Books, notebooks, magazines, and a multitude of papers were thrown up into the air, though not because of Kat. In fact, she was more like a byproduct of the insanity.

The real culprit was the small, orange Scraggy running around with a pair of scissors stuffed into the back of its shed skin. The Pokémon vaulted over the coffee table for a sixth time as Kat lunged for him. While the human girl floundered and tried not to smash her shin again, Russell the Scraggy caught the ledge of a tall bookcase set up against the far wall. He scrambled up and managed to get out of Kat's reach by the time the girl made it over. Catching her breath, she glared up at the little lizard Pokémon.

He simply grinned back down at her.

"Russell, you give me those scissors back right now!" she ordered.

"No way, Kat!" Russell stuck his tongue out at her and pulled his body farther back to the wall. "You might actually kill me!"

 _Oh, gee. No surprise there, Russ!_

This was just fantastic. Here she was, expecting her friends over soon, and her living room was a mess thanks to her older brother's brand new, trouble-making demon of a Pokémon. And to top it all off…

"Kat…? What happened to your hair?"

Kat groaned. Looking over her shoulder, she spotted a boy her age standing in the entryway to the living room. Eyes were narrowed with confusion from behind orange-rimmed glasses. One black eyebrow lifted up as he swept his eyes across the scene in front of him, slightly amused by the whole scenario. To give the boy credit, he didn't gape. Cheren had that in his favor. He wasn't shocked easily. Puzzled easily. A little too serious for his own good. But he wasn't the kind of person to get flustered and astonished to the point of being unmanageable.

"Hey Cheren…You're early."

Shaking his head, Cheren bent down and picked up the clock that fell off of the wall nearby. The back part faced Kat and she could see that the little compartment where the batteries went in was empty. He flipped the time piece around so she could see the clock hands, frozen in time.

One of Kat's two best friends, Cheren was the most punctual of the pair. So if he was already here, it was later than she thought. Then that meant Bianca would show up soon. That gave Kat no time to clean up, put the living room back in order, and figure out what the heck to do with Russell before he destroyed the house even more. Just perfect…

"You still haven't told me what happened to your hair, Kat…"

"Russell decided I was due for a change of pace…" Kat rolled her light, gray-ish purple eyes up and glared at said Pokémon.

It had come completely out of nowhere. All Kat had been doing was sitting around, minding her own business in the living room. Because she had been waiting for her friends to arrive, she decided to pick up a sketchbook that had been lying around on the coffee table and started drawing. Apparently, that meant she was the perfect target for one overly mischievous, completely out of control Scraggy.

One second, she was in the middle of erasing a line that made up the side of a vase. The next second, she heard a faint " _snip!"_ sound and her head suddenly felt a whole lot lighter. When she looked down, her jaw couldn't have hit the floor quicker.

Cheren blinked up at Russell and shook his head. "I can't believe he cut off your ponytail like that. He's seriously out of control, Kat."

 _Tell me about it…_ "You're telling me. He's been like this for a while and I can't figure it out…" She sighed and ran a hand through her hair. The rusty red locks, which once came down to her hips when out of its usual ponytail, now only reached just above her shoulders. "Anyway, let's head upstairs. Bianca should be here soon…"

"Kat~! I'm he—OHMYGOD!"

Cue another sigh. Kat and Cheren turned around to see a blonde girl standing where Cheren used to be. Unlike the stoic boy, this girl's shock was completely out in the open. Although she didn't want to, Kat couldn't help but laugh. If Bianca's eyes got any wider, they might have fallen out of the poor girl's skull.

"I-I knew I was running a little late," Bianca said sheepishly. "But, um…Do I even want to know?"

"No, you don't." Kat and Cheren blinked and looked at each other.

"JINX!" Kat screeched. "In your face!"

This prompted an uproarious round of laughter from the girls. With the disaster zone known as Kat White's living room forgotten, they rushed up that stairs towards Kat's bedroom. Cheren followed briskly behind them, just as excited for what awaited them.

"I can't believe that Professor Juniper gave us Pokémon!" he exclaimed.

Bianca squealed with delight. The overexcited blonde was the first inside Kat's bedroom, dragging the brunette raggedly behind her. "I know, I'm SO excited! Kat, where are they?!" The blonde turned this way and that as she started scanning every inch of the bedroom.

Kat laughed at her female friend's antics. Truth be told, she was just as excited as Bianca. She'd always wanted a Pokémon of her own. Growing up with breeders as parents, Kat had been exposed to Pokémon of all shapes and sizes all her life. She had spent most of her childhood helping her mother and father raise baby Pokémon from their eggs up until they got adopted by people and Trainers. But she never got the chance to take care of and befriend her very own Pokémon before. Now, the redhead was finally getting her chance. She couldn't be more excited.

And she didn't want to wait another moment. So as soon as Cheren was in the door, Kat made a beeline for the large box stowed away on the other side of her room. When the Professor came to drop it off, Kat had placed the box on her desk so it wouldn't get lost or damaged. Thankfully, with Russell occupying himself by harassing her, the box had remained exactly where she left it.

Wrapped up in blue wrapping paper and a bright green piece of ribbon, it looked more like somebody's birthday present than something you'd get from a Pokémon Professor.

As the three teens crowded around the box, Bianca held a hand out.

"They were delivered to Kat's house," she said, "so Kat gets first pick."

Said redhead started shaking her head. "Hey, wait a sec—"

"Naturally." Cheren put an arm around Kat's shoulders and steered her in front of the box. "The Pokémon are waiting for us inside this gift box."

After a bit of arguing and haggling, Bianca and Cheren managed to convince Kat to take her first pick. After ripping the colorful, shiny paper and disposing of the ribbon (which went right into Bianca's shoulder bag for reasons unknown), Kat made quick work of the packing tape and cardboard lid. Sitting inside in a pile of foam packing peanuts and a nice red, velvet pillow were three red-and-white balls. A small envelope with a hand-written note inside was taped to the lid.

 _Kat, Cheren, and Bianca—I've brought three Pokémon, one for you and one for each of your friends. Please settle your choices politely. Enjoy your Pokémon!—Professor Juniper._

Remembering to be very delicate with them, Kat reached in and removed the Pokéballs from the box.

 _Okay, so it says here that the three Pokémon in here are Snivy, Tepig, and Oshawott. So which one do I want to chose?_

Kat picked up each Pokéball and held it in her hand one-by-one. Being careful not to jostle the balls around too much, she squinted and examined them every which way. So many things tumbled around in her head as she tried to recall everything about the three Unovian starters. Snivy was a Grass-type Pokémon that could be trained to be really fast. Tepig, Unova's Fire-type starter, was a good heavy hitter. And the Water-type, Oshawott had speed and agility. So which one…?

"Um…I choose you!"

Kat plucked one of the Pokéballs and tossed it up in the air. The red-and-white sphere opened with an audible _"pop!"_ and a small burst of white light. The light spilled out onto Kat's bed, shaping itself into a small, adorable creature with light blue and white fur and dark eyes. A small scalchop was displayed on the front of the Pokémon's chest.

The Oshawott peered around with wide eyes until its gaze landed on Kat and the Pokéball in her hand. The little creature sprung up to its feet with such speed and excitement that Kat staggered.

"Are you my new trainer?" the (male) Pokémon asked quickly. Kat nodded and smiled.

"Yep! My name's Kat. What's yours?"

Plenty of people ended up naming their Pokémon without realizing that they already had names. Most of the time, the Pokémon didn't mind and learned to go with the "nicknames" their Trainers gave them. Kat didn't roll like that. If someone already had a name, what was the point of taking it away from them?

Judging from the beaming smile on her new Oshawott friend, he agreed too. "My name's River. Nice to meet you, Kat!" River bounced on Kat's mattress and jumped up into his new partner's arms. Kat laughed and squirmed around as the rambunctious little Oshawott scrambled up onto her shoulder, rubbing his cheek against Kat's affectionately.

With Kat choosing River, that left the other two Pokémon up for grabs. Before anyone could move, Bianca snatched up a Pokéball and claimed the Tepig—named Ember—as her own. Cheren wasn't exactly happy about being the last, but he _was_ happy to get Ambrose the Snivy as his partner.

"Hey, I know! Let's have a Pokémon battle!"

Kat and Cheren, with their new partners, all turned to stare at Bianca. The blonde bounced on her toes with Ember snorting eagerly in her arms. Cheren shook his head and sighed.

"Honestly, Bianca…Even though they're still weak Pokémon, you shouldn't have Pokémon battles inside a house."

"Don't be a worrywart," she countered. "These little ones are weak, like you said. We have to let them battle so they'll get stronger!" Bianca turned and grabbed Kat's wrist. "It's settled, Kat! Get ready for a Pokémon battle!"

Bianca's excitement over the prospect of a battle brought a light laugh out of Kat. If Bianca was one thing, she was persistent. When she got an idea stuck in her head, she acted on it. And she did have a point. The Pokémon were pretty young, from the looks of them. How much damage could they really do?

She turned to the Oshawott hanging over her shoulder. "What do you say, River?"

River snickered and slid down the girl's arm, landing lightly on the padded carpet below. "I'm ready!"

After taking a few minutes to rearrange the furniture around, Kat and Bianca moved to opposite sides of the room. River and Ember stood in front of their Trainers, crouched into their own little fighting stances. As the odd man out, Cheren took his spot off to the side as the referee.

"This battle will take place between Trainers Kat and Bianca," he announced, "and will only last until one Trainer's Pokémon are unable to battle. Begin!"

It was all over in a matter of a few minutes. As expected, both Pokémon were still inexperienced with battling and limited in their moves and attack power. Kat found out quickly that River's only known moves were Tackle and Tail Whip, so she made the most out of them. Ember was stronger than River, but his weight made him a lot slower than the Oshawott. River and Kat used that speed difference to their advantage, avoiding most of the Tepig's powerful tackles while dealing out a few speedy ones of their own. It became more like a game of tag than an actual Pokémon battle when Kat thought about it.

But who really cared? They were having too much fun to worry about it.

"River, use Tackle now!"

River was in a perfect strategic place for an attack, situated on top of Kat's dresser. Bianca's last attack had steered Ember straight into the wooden drawers when he tried to hit River. The poor little guy slammed right into the side, leaving him stunned. Stunned, but still in the game.

"Got it, Kat!" River let out a small shout as he dove off the edge of the dresser, diving straight for Ember. After knocking heads with the Tepid, the little Oshawott ricocheted off of his friend's skull and flew through the air.

Ember groaned, swaying unsteadily on his feet. Kat knew that she had it in the bag with this battle. Finally, he collapsed and Cheren made the call that the Tepig was unable to continue. Bianca let out a distressed cry and rushed to her Pokémon's side.

"Whoa!" The little blue otter landed neatly on Kat's bed. "I won!"

Kat scooped him up with a triumphant shout. "Great job, River! Our very first Trainer battle and we won!"

Both Trainer and Pokémon jumped and cheered around the room, with Bianca and Ember soon joining in.

"Kat, you're going to make a fantastic Trainer!"

"That was awesome, River!"

"Um…Bianca?" The little circle broke up and turned for face Cheren. The new Trainer shifted uneasily rubbing the lens of his glasses on his sleeve. "Would you look around for me?"

"Huh?"

Kat's jaw dropped as she finally took notice of the current state of her bedroom. If she thought the living room had been a mess, her bedroom was a disaster area. The sheets on her bed were a wadded up mess and her television looked about ready to fall over onto the floor. The trash bin she kept next to her desk had fallen on its side and crumpled up paper littered the ground, along with various art books that had gotten knocked off of a bookcase. Footprints were everywhere. On the floor, the furniture…

"How…How did footprints get on the walls and ceiling?!" The redhead gaped, mouth opening and closing wordlessly. Her eyes travelled down to the two Pokémon who stood in between Kat and Bianca. River and Ember smiled sheepishly.

"Sorry…"

Ambrose, who'd been standing next to Cheren and watching the entire thing go on, shook his snout in disbelief. "You two never change…"

"Wh-What happened?!" Bianca exclaimed. It seemed to take a few minutes for the truth to sink in, but a bright grin stretched out over the blonde's face. "Wow! Pokémon are amaaaaazing! So little, but so strong!"

Bianca carried on in this gushing vein for some time, which helped keep Kat from losing her mind over the mess. Most people would get fed up of the blonde pretty quickly. Bianca's flighty personality seemed pretty ditzy, so she had a frustrating quality that drove plenty of people nuts. But she was one of Kat's best friends. The redhead knew that despite all the "blonde" moments, Bianca really meant well.

"You…Are completely hopeless." Cheren shook his head. Kat could see he was struggling a bit not to be too harsh to Bianca.

For as long as she'd known the two, they were like this. Cheren was a lot more serious than the two girls, so he often became the straight man of the group. Kat loved to joke about how the two were able to get along so well, despite their completely different personalities. Her brother Jay, who was absolutely convinced the two had some sort of chemistry going on, constantly used the phrase "opposites attract" to explain it.

She believed it was because they were both very kind people. After Cheren healed River and Ember, Bianca decided that he needed to join in on the fun too. Kat agreed, and with a little prodding from both girls (and their Pokémon!), Cheren and Ambrose "stepped into the ring". This time around, Bianca took up the role of ref.

"Are you sure about this, Kat?" Cheren glanced around anxiously. "I mean, your room and all…"

Kat shrugged. "Just as long as nothing breaks, I can clean it all up later." She peered down at the two Pokémon, eyebrows raised. "Think you can handle that?"

"Sure thing, Kat!" River, confident of his skill, postured. Ambrose on the other hand, calmly assured her that he would keep himself in check.

Thus assured that her hard-earned property was safe, Kat gave the okay needed for the battle to take place.

Cheren was a tougher opponent than Bianca, being easily the smartest one in their little three-man group. Oddly enough, Ambrose was in a similar position in his own group. River and Kat had to put a lot more thought into their strategy. Unlike Ember, Ambrose was faster, so River had a more difficult time evading him.

"Look out, River!" Kat shouted. "Dodge and counter with Tackle!"

As Ambrose rushed in for a fierce body slam, River rolled quickly to the left. Just barely avoiding the attack. But then a curious thing happened. Instead of using the move Kat instructed he do, the young Oshawott planted his feet firmly on the ground and braced himself for something. Ambrose got ready to unleash another Tackle.

"River, get out of the way!"

And again, he chose to ignore her. Kat gasped the green Pokémon sped closer to her little friend. Sucking in a deep breath, River released a powerful blast of water from his mouth. The unexpected attack hit Ambrose head-on and, unprepared, sent the Snivy up in the air and into his Trainer's arms. Cheren fell down to the ground, soaked.

Kat stared at her partner, shocked. "River…What…?"

"Haha! Will you look at that?!"

River, who seemed as startled by the move as Kat was, turned and spotted Russell's head peering out of the doorway. The impish Scraggy cracked a knowing smirk at the young Pokémon.

"Looks like you just learned Water Gun, Squirt," Russell said. "Nice shot, by the way."

"Uh, thanks!" River smiled brightly as Russell ducked back out of the doorway and scampered back down the hallway. In the next second, he was scooped back up into Kat's arms. The girl squealed as she spun River around.

"That was great, River! I can't believe it, two wins in a row!"

Kat couldn't believe it. River learned Water Gun! That was amazing! And not only that, but he won his very first two battles! Maybe she was going to be a better Trainer than she thought.

"Um, Kat?" The redhead turned and frowned when she saw her friends and their Pokémon bowing.

"We're sorry that we made a mess of your room!" Cheren apologized.

Bianca twisted her hat around in her hands. "We'll help you clean it up…"

An easy-going smile worked its way onto Kat's face. Her friends were good—no, they were _great_ friends.

"Don't worry about it you guys," she told them. "Like I said, as long as nothing broke, I can clean it up later."

Her friends protested, of course. Even their Pokémon were adamant about helping to clean up their mess. While Cheren and Bianca pleaded and argued their case, Ember and Ambrose were busying themselves by picking up the few little odds and ends that they could. The little Tepig made quick work of pushing all the paper into a pile next to her trash bin while the Grass-type Pokémon tried to tug a corner of Kat's bedspread back into place.

Eventually, Kat caved in and let them help her tidy up. Working together, the six of them were able to put everything back into place in no time at all. There wasn't much that could be done about the various paw prints all over the walls, though.

 _I'll have to leave a note for Jay about wall cleaner or something. With all the trouble Russell's been giving me, this place runs out of it like nobody's business!_

"I've got a few things to take care of," she announced, "so can you guys hold off for like, ten minutes before we go thank Professor Juniper?"

Cheren nodded. "That's fine by me."

"Yeah, I've got to stop by my house real quick, too!" Bianca scooped up Ember's Pokeball and stuffed it in a pocket. "See you guys in a bit! Come on, Ember!"

Bianca scurried down the stairs, Ember following hot on her heels. Confirming the time, like the conscientious guy he was, Cheren left with Ambrose, leaving Kat and River all alone.

"That was awesome…" Heaving a contented sigh, Kat rolled her shoulders and straightened the blue-and-white cap on her head.

Now that she had her first taste of a Pokémon battle, she could see why so many Trainers were around. It was actually a lot more fun than she originally thought!

"Hey, hey, Kat!" She turned and looked down to see River hanging from the exposed pocket of her cut-off jean shorts. "So what do we do now?"

She laughed and picked him up so he could hang off of her shoulder. River stayed that way as she hurried around her room, cramming things into her duffle bag. Extra clothes, hairbrush, toothbrush, art supplies, identification material, toiletries…

"Well, once we go say thanks to Professor Juniper," she explained, "you and I are heading out on our own journey."

River blinked, eyes wide with confusion. "Journey?"

Kat nodded and explained the concept to him. In Unova and the other regions of the world, plenty of children went out on a journey as a kind of rite of passage. They travelled on their own or in groups with other people and travelled all over the region. Trainers worked with their Pokémon and formed teams to compete in contests and Gym battles. And if they collected enough Gym badges, they could go challenge the Elite Four and then, providing that they beat them, challenge the Champion, Alder.

"So were going to go out and battle the Gym Leaders?" Kat nodded as she shoved a pencil case into her bag's side pocket.

"Yep. But in order to do that, we'll need to build a team and make some more friends." Kat hesitated. "Do you think this will be something that you'll want to do, River?"

Kat was going to go forward with this plan. More than that, she was determined to keep up with her promise. But if it wasn't what River wanted, Kat wasn't going to force him. They were partners now, after all. Whatever they did, they did it together.

"Yeah! I want to go on a journey too!"

Kat nearly stumbled as River stood up on her shoulder and threw his tiny little arms around her face. His big, dark-colored eyes were wide and bright and very excited. His smile reassured her. Truthfully, the whole journey business made her anxious. She didn't know what exactly it was, but she felt jittery every time she thought about the idea. It didn't feel like the good kind of jitters, but it didn't feel especially bad either. Either way, knowing that she had a partner to help her through it made the whole prospect easier to handle.

She felt a small giggle erupt out of her. "Thanks, River."

After swooping up the last few things she needed, including her brand new Xtransceiver (a gift from Jay), and leaving that note, Kat and River bid Russell a goodbye. Before heading out, Kat made sure that Russell was locked inside where he couldn't cause any trouble for the other people living in the small town of Nuvema. It happened only once before, but the memory alone was enough to turn the girl's face as red as her hair.

 _Yeah, not having a repeat of_ that _nightmare again…_

It was just a brisk five minute's run from Kat's house to Professor Juniper's. River clung to the strap of her duffle bag, which bounced against her side in time with her footsteps. Her two friends were waiting for her when she arrived at the Pokémon Professor's home. Kat hailed them and the other two Unovians returned the greeting.

"Hey, guys!"

"'Bout time you got here, Kat," Bianca chided teasingly, "Let's go!"

Inside, the trio of friends were greeted by brown-haired woman wearing a lab coat. Professor Juniper, the woman who had given them their starter Pokémon. She greeted Kat and her friends warmly. Despite the young teens already knowing who she was and what she did, the Professor expressed a desire to stick to some formalities, if not for the special nature of the occasion. Kat was fine with it. She understood that Professor Juniper had to keep up appearances, what with her being the region's leading Pokémon researcher and everything.

"Hmmm…" Professor Juniper leaned forward, eyes narrowed and scrutinizing as she circled the three soon-to-be Trainers and their Pokémon. A small spark lit her eyes as she smiled wryly at them. "I can see you six have already had a Pokémon battle, haven't you?"

Bianca chuckled nervously. "That obvious, huh?"

Kat looked herself and River over carefully. It didn't look like they were all the scuffed up or dirty. Cheren healed River, Ember, and Ambrose before everyone went off to take care of their own things, too. How did Professor Juniper know?

"Don't worry about it, dear." The Professor said lightly. "It's not a bad thing that you were excited to get to know your new partners. I can even tell that your Pokémon have begun to trust you, which is excellent!"

The reassured Bianca, who giggled and hugged Ember tighter, the little Tepig grunting contentedly. At the same time, Ambrose preened proudly next to Cheren and Kat laughed as River nuzzled her cheek. Yes, Professor Juniper was right about that. Kat didn't need her gift to tell that the Pokémon were already forming bonds with her and her friends.

"Now then…" Professor Juniper turned around and started rummaging around in the desk behind her. She came back to them in a few moments with some devices in hand. "As for why I gave all of you Pokémon…"

Cheren pushed his glasses back up the bridge of his nose. "It's for the Pokédex, right?

Kat turned to look at her friend. She knew what a Pokédex was. Both of her parents kept their old ones to catalogue their Pokémon breeding notes and Jay let her play with his when she was younger. But what did a Pokédex have to do with the starters?

Professor Juniper congratulated Cheren on his cleverness. "I know you must have done your studying extensively, Cheren, but let me explain everything from the beginning. For the girls' sakes."

The researcher held the devices out in her hand. Like all Unovian Pokedexes, they were small, flat rectangles with a large lens built into the front cover of it mean to scan Pokémon to identify them. Professor Juniper had three of them: one blue, one pink, and a red one.

"The Pokédex is a high-tech device that automatically records the Pokémon you encounter," she explained. "So I want you three to visit many places and meet all the Pokémon in the Unova region. That is my request."

Kat gaped. She should have expected as much, really. No matter what the region, Pokémon Professors typically relied on Trainers to help them gather research data while the Trainers went on their journeys. But meet every single last Pokémon in Unova?! That was one heavy undertaking…

 _It's a good thing I planned on keeping up with my little pet project during my journey_ , Kat thought. _I guess it kills two Swablu with one stone…_

"OK!" Bianca shouted, realizing a little too late that her voice may have been a little too loud for the lab. "Er…I mean, yes Professor!"

Cheren accepted his Pokédex with a grateful, polite bow. "Thank you very much. Because of you, I can become a Trainer, just like I've always wished."

Kat smiled as she got her Pokédex. While it might be a little extra work, Professor Juniper's request fit in rather well with her already laid out plans. She didn't mind helping the woman out. After all, she was going to be spending a lot of time around Pokémon anyway, so what harm could it do?

Professor Juniper instructed the three of them to meet her on Route 1 once they were ready. Now that they had their Pokémon and Pokedexes, and even participated in their first Trainer battles, Kat and her friends needed to know how to conduct battles with wild Pokémon as well. The Professor excused Cheren and Bianca, who hurried home with their Pokémon to start packing for their journeys. Kat, however, was asked to walk with her.

"I really do appreciate you helping me with this, Kat," Professor Juniper confessed as the two (with River riding on Kat's bag) made their way through Nuvema towards the determined meeting place.

Summer in Nuvema Town wasn't always Kat's favorite (she preferred spring), but it still was pretty nice. It wasn't particularly hot and there was a bit of a breeze going. Kat thought that was fantastic. She didn't like extreme heat and sunburned pretty easily, so this was great. The sky had a bunch of white, fluffy clouds drifting by that looked like Flaafy wool.

Yes, it was a good day to be starting out on a journey.

"Don't mention it, Professor," Kat replied cheerily. "I'm happy to help."

"Really, though. After everything that happened, since you came to Unova and with what happened to Jay, I wasn't sure if you would be willing to agree to my request."

Kat shifted uneasily. There were only a few people in town who knew why she and Jay had moved there, and the Professor was one of them. Bianca and Cheren knew, too, but she still didn't talk about it all that much. Well, it was more like she didn't _want_ to talk about it. So the townsfolk just assumed that she and her brother moved out into the country to get away from fast-paced city life, or something like that. Small towns were always the source of so many rumors, and Kat had long since lost track of them. She was just glad that they weren't too outrageous.

"Its okay, Professor Juniper," she assured the older woman. "It really isn't any trouble. Not whatsoever!"

Kat put on her biggest smile for the Professor when the woman didn't seem so convinced.

"Alright, I'll take your word for it…Just try not to overwhelm yourself, dear. Alright?"

Kat opened her mouth to speak, but got cut off by River. The excitable little Oshawott scurried up the shoulder strap of her duffle bag and launched himself on to Kat's hat with a happy squeal.

"There they are, Kat!" he shouted. "Ambrose, Ember! How did you guys get here so fast?!"

Upon noticing the two approach, Bianca whirled around. A blinding smile broke out on the blonde's face as she zipped over, clutching her hat in one hand and grabbing Kat's arm with the other.

"Kat, come on!" she cried in a hurry. "Get that denim-covered rear in gear!"

Found at the mercy of an over-eager blonde, Kat called out a hasty apology to a chuckling Professor Juniper before Bianca dragged her away.

Route 1 was the only road leading out of Nuvema Town, so it saw its fair share of foot traffic on any given day. For some reason, there weren't many people out on the road as Kat would have expected. Bianca led her over to the big sing marking the beginning of the route, where Cheren happened to be waiting for them.

He chuckled when the two girls came up to him. "Bianca felt that since this would our first real journey, we needed to take our first steps together."

Kat laughed. Leave it to Bianca to think up something like that. It was a little cheesy and sappy, but then that was just how Bianca was. And for that matter, it sounded like a pretty good idea to Kat too.

Whirling on her heels, the redhead linked arms with her two best friends. At their feet, the three little Pokémon did their best to mimic the gesture.

"Let's do it! One…"

"Two…"

"Three!"

And with that one little step, the adventure began.

* * *

 **And there we have it, folks. The adventure has begun! Oh, and I decided to change up Kat's appearance, since it felt weird not using one of my own original characters (personality, looks, the works), so I decided not to go with Hilda/Touko's design for Kat. However, there is some influence of the original heroine in there, namely her last name "White", and her clothes. Just picture the female protagonist's outfit, but all in shades of blue. No pink here!**

 **Anyway, it be later here, so I gotta wrap this up. Tune in next time for Pokemon battles, new friends, and (hopefully) everybody's favorite awkward green-haired hero!**

 **Let me know what you think in the box below, especially if you have any questions! And a big thanks to everyone who followed and favorited this story!**

 **BYE!**


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